Praying the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 120-122 

Last week, I introduced and invited you to read the Psalms through a prayer practice of Lectio Divina, where you slowly savor each sentence, paying attention to the words that are leaping off the page.   Perhaps the words that catch your eye or ear are because they warm your heart or maybe because they feel like sandpaper to your soul.  I invited you to sit with the words, pondering why those words caught your attention, and what God might be longing to sing to you?  Then, you prayed the words and committed your intention to living those words ~ embodying them as part of the wider Body of Christ that we are all seeking to be part of ~ as we heard yesterday.  This is not about getting it “right”.  There is no test to pass or badge for your heavenly sash.  This is about embodying and embracing, seeking to let the words of the Psalms sink and simmer in your soul, guiding your life.  After all, there are all kinds of forces seeking to preach and proclaim their gospels on your life right now ~ from capitalism to politics to even the church in our Churchianity. 

 

This week you may want to keep practicing Lectio Divina.  Like anything, the more we engage in this prayer practice, the more comfortable and natural it will become, like a basketball player shooting free throw after free throw to find a rhythm.  The point of Lectio is not to become an expert, but to engage the Eternal. 

 

Or you may this week want to find one verse in each Psalm that sings to your soul and one that is sandpaper to your soul, and ask, “Why?”  Why does that verse cause me fascination or frustration? 

 

For example, in Psalm 120, I find verse 7 like sandpaper: “I am for peace but when I speak, they are for war.”  This verse frustrates me because when I speak peace, I want others to cheer and say, “Thank you so much for that brilliant insight, I am going to change my life right now!”  This verse annoys me because it reminds me, I can’t fix or save or advise another featherless biped.  And, when you make your living writing and speaking, suddenly this verse exposes my own vulnerability and inability to control the outcomes.  Finally, this verse needles me because it creates a division ~ us versus them mentality.  This leads me back to the beginning of the Psalm, verse 2, “Deliver me, O God, from lying lips from a deceitful tongue.”  Maybe this isn’t about that politician or pundit or huckster and trickster out there, but the pundit and huckster who lives in me.  To simplify this verse, God deliver me from myself…from my ego that needs to be seen as successful, competent, and in control.  God deliver me from myself…from saying things that hurt and harm others.  God deliver me from myself…from all the ways I am so convinced of my own brilliance.

 

This leads me right into Psalm 121, when I sit with the verse, “My help comes from God, maker of heaven and earth.”  God is the One who fashions and forms all life from the smallest particle to the vastness of the universe.  This is part of the ending in Job, where God shows Job the whole of creation and reminds Job that Job doesn’t get to control or create everything.  While it isn’t exactly the happy ending that we want, there is a powerful truth of our own vulnerability.  This leads me to Psalm 122, where the Hebrew Poet proclaims the joy of worshiping together.  I need other people on this journey.  Christianity is not a solo sport ~ we are inter-dependence as we celebrated yesterday.  To say I am an individual Christian is an oxymoron.  We are designed and built for community, and we are shaped by/through community.  I pray you continue to find words in each Psalm as you read today.  Amen.